East Coast Festival Guide, April 2001
The old 'swamp fox' is back - and with a brand new CD. Born in Oak Grove, Louisiana, USA. T.J.W. was a member of Tony And The Mojos before defecting to Texas to start Tony And The Twilights. He started recording in 1968 and many people presumed he was black after hearing his layered vocals. He had his first hit single on Monument with Polk Salad Annie in 1969 (the song was later covered by Elvis Presley). Also contained on his debut Black And White was Willie And Laura Mae Jones which was covered by Dusty Springfield on her classic album Dusty In Memphis. After succeeding once more with Groupie Girl, he wrote Rainy Night in Georgia, which became a standard and a hit for Brook Benton. White's first three albums were produced by Billy Swan, and Cozy Powell drummed for him at the 1970 Isle Of Wight festival. White co-wrote Steamy Windows with Tina Turner, which gave her a Top 20 U.K. hit in 1990 and also gave T.J.W. some well-deserved pocket money by recording three more of his songs for her multi-platinum album Foreign Affairs.
Tony Joe has had songs recorded by dozens of other major artists including Ray Charles, Hank Jr., Tim McGraw, John Mayall, Waylon Jennings, (who has recorded numerous Tony Joe White songs-including the '99 release Closing In On The Fire). He has written and performed jingles for McDonalds and Levi's 501 Blues; been featured on movie soundtracks Millennium and Selena, Hotspot (starring Don Johnson), and recently had songs performed by Etta James on two feature films; and worked with Marc Bryan (Hootie & The Blowfish) and Michael McDonald (with whom he recently co-wrote a song recorded by Joe Cocker. Searching For Tony Joe was an award-winning documentary winner at the Detroit Film Festival in 1999.
Incredibly given his reputation as a songwriter, White's albums Closer To the Truth, Path of A Decent Groove and Lake Placid Blues were not released in his home country! (However; they were acclaimed and successful in Australia and Europe).
April 2001.
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